What moderate lawmakers like us hope to do in the next 100 days

We are prepared to acknowledge that a meaningful infrastructure program will have room for tax incentives and public-private partnerships and could include innovations such as a national infrastructure bank, but it will certainly require new sources of funding for direct investment in highways, railways and airports. We know that successful tax reform will be challenging, as the deductions, exclusions and credits that pack the tax code like chocolates in a box are shrunk or eliminated in favor of lower rates.

Success on those two issues could open the door to working on solutions to a number of issues, such as job-training and skills-development programs to help displaced workers, initiatives to streamline and right-size regulation, and maybe even a more honest and constructive look at our budget and its deficits. That’s where our focus should be now.

Compromise may not be glamorous and may not play well on cable television, but it is an absolutely necessary component of successful legislation. Ideological purity is a recipe for continued bitterness, a divided nation and stalemate. We know that these common -sense, nonpartisan initiatives will summon Americans to do what they do best: Rise to the challenge of innovation, creativity, fairness and service. Failure to seek commonality or accept incremental progress will threaten more than our congressional seats and reputations. It puts our systems of government at risk. We owe it to our country to do better.